👉 Overview
👀 What ?
Harvesting tickets from Windows is a process used in cybersecurity to extract Kerberos tickets from a Windows system, typically with the aim of escalating privileges or gaining unauthorized access to resources.
🧐 Why ?
Understanding the concept of ticket harvesting in Windows is significant as it forms a key part of many cyber attacks, particularly those involving lateral movement within a network. For IT professionals, being aware of how tickets can be harvested can help in designing and implementing effective security measures.
⛏️ How ?
Ticket harvesting can be performed using various methods, such as using Mimikatz, a popular post-exploitation tool. This tool can extract plaintext passwords, hash, PIN code, and Kerberos tickets from memory. The attacker first needs to gain access to the system, either through a phishing attack or by exploiting a vulnerability. Once they have access, they can run Mimikatz or a similar tool to harvest tickets.
⏳ When ?
The practice of harvesting tickets from Windows systems has been common since the release of Windows 2000, which introduced the Kerberos authentication protocol as the default authentication method.
⚙️ Technical Explanations
Kerberos tickets are used in Windows for authentication between clients and services in a network. When a user logs on, a ticket-granting ticket (TGT) is issued, which can then be used to obtain service tickets for various resources. These tickets are stored in memory, where they can potentially be harvested by an attacker. The attacker can then use these tickets to impersonate the user or service, allowing them to gain unauthorized access to resources. Defenses against ticket harvesting include limiting administrative privileges, implementing least-privilege principles, monitoring for suspicious activity, and regularly patching and updating systems.